I think, therefore I amino acid.

Re: Vue of (SF)^2 Festival

Mon 14 July 2008

Hey All! So the San Fransisco Silent Film Festival was this last
weekend. I saw three films this time and this is more or less what I
thought of them.

1) “The Man Who Laughs”: This film was the direct inspiration for the
Joker villain in the Batman comics. My least favorite of the festival,
it was also the headliner. The film had a strong narrative and plot but
almost no point o moral. It is based off of Victor Hugo novel and
features a love quadrangle between two carnies (one blind girl and one
man disfigured to that it always looks like he is laughing) and two
nobles (a duchess and a prince). I more or less waited around for all of
these four to die and then NONEOFTHEMHADTHECOURTESYTO! Three side
characters did, but really only the one in the iron maiden was
satisfying. The film had some really excellent shot angles and fades.
More or less I appreciated the technical aspects but the gimmick the
misunderstood laughing man was over pretty quickly.

2) “Her Wild Oat”: It is official: I am in love with Colleen Moore. This
film was far and wide my favorite. As was pointed out, the plot was your
standard Romantic Comedy Formula. Poor, normal working girl (Ms. Moore)
falls for rich wall street man who was dressed as a day laborer.
Hilarity ensues as they court each other in high and low society.
However, as was also noted, because of the films age, this tired old
format seemed somehow fresher and more genuine. Of course there were
comedic differences you have a hard time getting through nowadays. For
instance, there was a ton of slapstick as compared to modern films.
Moreover, the inter-titles had a group of hilarious puns, eg

“She is a cabaret dancer at the Owl Club. One of those ‘Iowa’ gals. As
in, ‘Iowa months rent, Daddy…’”

In retrospect though, the films was eerily similar to “Wall-E”. The
male/female gender roles were switched, but the basic plot and humor
styles were the same. Perhaps, true art *does* transcend time. But
something that really does speak through the ages is the mega-hottness
of Colleen Moore. If only she hadn’t died when I was three and a half….

3) “Jujiro”: This is a rather famous Japanese silent film by the same
director of “A Page of Madness”. Plot revolves around a very strong
female character and her no good brother who keeps getting himself into
trouble after he fell in love with a prostitute. It combined traditional
Japanese themes (honor, rain, death) with some pretty intense
surrealism. My favorite shot in the film is very very similar to one of
my favorite shots in Dziga Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera”. Here
there was a woman’s (the prostitute) laughing head imposed over a
spinning pinwheel. A year later Vertov imposed a spinning industrial
sewing machine over the head of a laughing peasant woman. Either way it
is creepy and enticing. On the surface, combing strong Japanese tropes
with surrealism reminds modern viewers of “Tetsuo: the Iron Man.” This
might be a slightly unfair comparison, but they are alike in
awesomeness. “Jujiro” had a strong narrative structure more similar to
Kurosawa than the wacky “Akira”-inspired film.

In summary, nothing was quite as good as the “Godless Girl” from last
year. But “Her Wild Oat” was certainly as good or better than “Girl with
a Hat Box” from the year before. Moreover, I am “inspired” to go out and
watch more Colleen Moore films.

As a corollary, the more I go the more I am convinced that the format of
the silent film festival is something that would be perfect for Austin.
Both culturally and socially, someone should start this. Hmmm…..